Typical circuit breakers include load and line terminals which provide electrical connections between the load and line conductors and the circuit breaker. These terminals have a fixed position or configuration depending upon the application for the circuit breaker. More specifically, the terminals can have a number of positions or configurations depending upon whether the conductors connected to the circuit breaker are connected at the side or back of the circuit breaker. However, these positions and configurations are established when the circuit breaker is manufactured, and are not readily modified when the circuit breaker is used in the field. Additionally, regardless of the position or configuration of the terminals, these terminals are rigidly positioned in the circuit breaker and, in use, can not be repositioned to accommodate conductors which are oriented such that they are difficult to connect to the terminal (e.g. a 00 gauge conductor which is skewed and must be deflected with substantial force to be properly connected to the lug associated with the terminal). By way of example, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,051 issued on Nov. 1, 1994 to Bernard Di Marco.
In addition to the problem of connecting poorly oriented conductors to the terminals of a circuit breaker, there is a need to reduce the size of circuit breakers for a given current interrupting rating. Accordingly, circuit breakers have been designed with moving load contacts which increase the speed and distance between the line and load contacts when separating in response to a short circuit condition. An example of such a circuit breaker is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,594,567, issued on Jun. 10, 1986. This type of circuit breaker is typically smaller than a circuit breaker of equal rating having a fixed load contact, but requires added components such as a load contact pivot and camming arrangement. Accordingly, elimination or reduction in size of any of these added components would further reduce the size of the circuit breaker.
In view of the circuit breaker configurations discussed above, it would be desirable to provide an improved terminal configuration to improve the ability to connect a conductor to the circuit breaker. Additionally, it would be desirable to provide a terminal configuration which reduces the size of a circuit breaker for a given rating.